Friday, December 31, 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

I had the dawning today that I am indeed in the third trimester of pregnancy again.

Baby's movements are becoming more strong--not the happy little fluttery movements that make you say "oooh! It's alive!" More like the major jabs and rolls that make your whole belly move and your husband says, "It's aaaaaaaaliiiiiiiive!"

I'm hungry. My appetite has really been shot throughout this whole pregnancy. During the first trimester, nearly every meal was cut short by my body saying very clearly, "If you take one more bite, you WILL throw up." Over the second trimester this became less common, but I still didn't have much of a will to eat, and especially not overeat. Seriously. I didn't even overindulge at Thanksgiving. As a result, I lost nearly 15 pounds during the first trimester, and haven't even made it back to pre-pregnancy weight yet. Yet. But yesterday and today, come the end of dinner time, I took seconds. It has been months since I took seconds! And both nights I wanted dessert too! So I made popcorn. Yum. And ate a bunch of it. Oh yes, those fifteen pounds are coming back with a vengeance.

One of my favorite games to play with Cody while pregnant is "Wanna know when I can see my toes?" wait... wait... bend waaaay over... "now!" And yes. We're playing that game now.

Someone at church actually said to me, "So, when is your baby due?" instead of just eyeballing my massive middle suspiciously.

And lastly, we think we might have found a name. But it's still Cody's call. :D

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas morning dawned long after I had already awoken... but I let the kids sleep in all the way until 7:30. That's the latest Christmas morning I can ever remember. Silly me. :)The kids took a moment to process everything that was going on, but were very excited. The Christmas cookies were a huge hit. Anna picked off all the pieces of chocolate on the chocolate orange cookies... silly girl. The kids also loved new pairs of slippers, Lee's tool set, and Anna's dolly. And of course, the Curious George fruit snacks.We opened gifts while munching on pears, clementines, and cookies, and by about nine thirty we were finally ready to go get breakfast. We went up to my parent's house (Mom and Dad F), where there were MORE gifts waiting for us--can you believe it?--and then our traditional Eggs Benedict. Oh. Yum.Cody and Anna went back home for a little while--Anna to take a nap in her own bed, and Cody to "Take a nap" aka "set up the new HD TV." I napped at mom and dad's and Lee played with toys.About three thirty, we all reconvened and got to open MORE gifts, since Sara and Eric were there then and they had given to us for Christmas this year. The kids were thrilled with everything. Then, we worked diligently on Christmas dinner, which we ended up serving a little late (no big deal). It was amazing. Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, special potatoes, red and green jell-o, rolls, steamed broccoli, mushrooms and au jus, vegetables, and chocolate lava cakes for dessert. We rolled ourselves out of the door and went home to bed.We are most grateful for spending this Christmas with our wonderful families. We love you all! We also are grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ and his marvelous ministry; for His life and love which reaches us still today. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Time for the quintessential Christmas post! But again, this blog is every bit as much a journal for me as entertainment for you. Read what you want. You're here by choice. ;)We spent Christmas Eve with Cody's family. This was really special. We invited whoever could make it to our house and prepared their traditional "Jerusalem Dinner." We try to eat foods that Christ would have eaten, so we had lamb, fish, figs, dates, olives, grapes and grape juice, vegetables, cheese, and unleavened bread. Attending the evening festivities were: us (Cody and I, Lee and Anna); Raychel and Paul with their children Shayden, Gavon, and Ashlin; Kami and Levi with Riley; Sheila and Jordan with Alexis and Parker; Mom and Dad S.; and Alisa. We're so grateful everyone made it up safe and sound, and took the effort to be with us. I hope they all had as much fun as we did.

After dinner, we passed around the candle and took turns saying what we were grateful for. Then the kids put on the Nativity Play--a first for many of them, and I'm realizing now just how much work it is to get eight kids (the oldest is five and a half) to stay focused for a fifteen minute play, and actually be around for their part. We giggled our way through it sacrilegiously.At last it was time to open our cousin gift exchange and Grandma S brought in a massive sack of pajamas for everyone. We changed into our PJ's and snapped pictures, then everyone went home and our little dumplings went to bed.